{"id":930,"date":"2020-05-23T13:51:38","date_gmt":"2020-05-23T18:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/?p=930"},"modified":"2023-03-16T06:39:46","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T11:39:46","slug":"why-is-there-no-b-or-e-sharp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/why-is-there-no-b-or-e-sharp\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is There No B or E Sharp? Secrets Unveiled"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hey… wait a second! If you look at all the notes of a chromatic scale, you’ll see this: C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C. Where is E or B Sharp? Or F and C flat for that matter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is no definitive reason why our current music notation system is designed as it is today with no B or E sharp, but one likely reason is due to the way western music notation evolved with only 7 different notes in a scale even though there are 12 total semitones. Therefore 7 does not evenly divide into 12<\/strong>, thus our current music notation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sounds pretty confusing–I’ll try and diagram this out so we can understand this as best as we can. I’ll be honest, I’m not a music history expert by any stretch so we’ll learn together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7 Note Scale: The Culprit For the Case Of the Missing B and E Sharp. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you want an excellent source to understand the history of how we got our current 7 note scale, make sure and check this blog post out from Drooble<\/a>–it’s decently comprehensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suffice it to say, that we didn’t always have our full chromatic 12 note scale from the beginning. When music was being refined and systemized, there was initially only 7 notes<\/strong> that made up all the notes in a scale before the notes started repeating themselves. In other words, all the notes we thought about looked like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1<\/td>2<\/td>3<\/td>4<\/td>5<\/td>6<\/td>7<\/td>8<\/td><\/tr>
C<\/td>D<\/td>E<\/td>F<\/td>G<\/td>A<\/td>B<\/td>C (repeating the first note of the scale)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So we found that we could subdivide music into 7 (uneven) intervals before the notes started to sound the same but higher (what we call an octave, today). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how does this answer the question? <\/strong>Well, I think a diagram is in order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Beginning Of the Confusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So, when music was just beginning to be diagrammed and plotted like it is today with modern music notation, we had 7 notes to work with. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to help us visualize, let’s think of an octave (where the note sounds the same, but higher. Like from C4 to C5 in modern terms), like a river. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The banks of the river (the top and bottom of the diagram) are the top and bottom of the octave. And the intervals are the planks<\/strong> that cross the river.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The C Major scale (7 notes)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

This is where the confusion started. Notice how the planks are uneven!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This unevenness is what gives the Major scale its distinct sound. The intervals go like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Step, Full Step, Half Step<\/strong>, Full Step, Full Step, Full Step, Half Step<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether or not the first discovered notes made up a major scale are irrelevant, though, the point is that it’s extremely likely that the notes were not all the same logarithmic distance apart. See later in the article to hear why.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether it is known that the distance between each note was different at the time when they were “discovered” is unknown, but then, the cause of the weirdness of our music system came afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Weirdness Starts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to today’s musical notation, musician’s agreed that there were more than 7 notes between the banks of the river and eventually western musicians settled on 12 total notes in a scale.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is that we didn’t redo the existing musical notation! Rather than starting from scratch and going from A to L (which we should have done in my opinion), we tried to meld the old system with the new. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, instead of adding letters, we decided to add “sharps” and “flats”, as a way to describe the “semitones” between notes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, we have 12 total notes, making 12 intervals, which looks more like this:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Our modern 12-note chromatic scale<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Notice how the planks in the 12 note bridge are all exactly even<\/strong>. They follow the same logarithmic ratio all the way up (2^(1\/12)) the scale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now let’s compare these two bridges side by side:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Let’s take a look at the two bridges and pay attention to a few things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n